REINFORCEMENT LEARNING IN CHILDREN WITH FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM DISORDER
Main Article Content
Keywords
Prenatal alcohol exposure, reinforcement learning, neuropsychology, behavior problems, behavioral interventions, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Abstract
Background
It is often said that children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) have difficulty learning from reinforcement. However, there is little empirical evidence to support or deny this claim.
Objectives
To examine reinforcement learning in children with FASD, specifically: (1) the rate of learning from reinforcement; and (2) the impact of concreteness of the reinforcer.
Methods
Participants included 18 children with FASD (IQ ? 70), ages 11-17, and 18 age- and sex-matched controls. Participants each completed a novel reinforcement learning discrimination task that involved visual probabilistic learning (70% contingent feedback). The task was completed twice, once with tokens, and once with points (counterbalanced).
Results
The control group demonstrated significantly stronger overall reinforcement learning, although rates of improvement and effect of concreteness of the reinforcer (tokens vs. points) were not different between groups. The FASD group’s responses were more likely to be guided by the most recent information, rather than based on integration of reward status over multiple trials.
Conclusions
Reinforcement learning does not appear to occur in a functionally different manner in children with FASD, but does take longer, and is more impacted by recent reward than an integration of overall reinforcement information. Children with FASD without an intellectual disability may be able to learn from reinforcement given sufficient consistent repetition. However, other failures associated with learning difficulties such as the complexity of the material, transfer of learning, or impulsivity were not addressed in this study.
References
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2 Mattson SN, Riley EP, Gramling L, Delis DC, Jones KL. Neuropsychological comparison of alcohol-exposed children with or without physical features of fetal alcohol syndrome. Neuropsychology 1998;12:146-153.
3 Mattson SN, Roebuck TM. Acquisition and retention of verbal and nonverbal information in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 2002;26:875-882.
4 Willford JA, Richardson GA, Leech SL, Day NL. Verbal and visuospatial learning and memory function in children with moderate prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 2004;28:497-507.
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6 Sutton RS, Barto AG. Reinforcement learning: An introduction. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998.
7 Cooper JD, Rudeen PK. Alterations in regional catecholamine content and turnover in the male rat brain in response to in utero ethanol exposure. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 1988;12:282-285.
8 Choong K-C, Shen R-Y. Prenatal ethanol exposure alters the postnatal development of the spontaneous electrical activity of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area. Neuroscience 2004;126: 1083-1091.
9 Shen R-Y, Hannigan JH, Kapatos G. Prenatal ethanol reduces the activity of adult midbrain dopamine neurons. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 1999;23:1801-1807.
10 Wang J, Haj-Dahmane S, Shen R-Y. Effects of prenatal ethanol exposure on the excitability of ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons in vitro. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 2006;319:857-863.
11 Cortese BM, Moore GJ, Bailey BA, Jacobson SW, Delaney-Black V, Hannigan JH. Magnetic resonance and spectroscopic imaging in prenatal alcohol-exposed children: Preliminary findings in the caudate nucleus. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 2006;28:597-606.
12 Archibald SL, Fennema-Notestine C, Gamst A, Riley EP, Mattson SN, Jernigan TL. Brain dysmorphology in individuals with severe prenatal alcohol exposure. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 2001;43:148-154.
13 Mattson SN, Riley EP, Sowell ER, Jernigan TL, Sobel DF, Jones KL. A decrease in the size of the basal ganglia in children with fetal alcohol syndrome. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 1996;20:1088-1093.
14 Riikonen RS, Nokelainen P, Valkonen K, Kolehmainen AI, Kumpulainen KI, Könönen M, Vanninen R-LS, Kuikka JT. Deep serotonergic and dopaminergic structures in fetal alcoholic syndrome: A study with nor-beta-CIT-singlephoton emission computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging volumetry. Biological Psychiatry 2005;57:1565-1572.
15 Riley EP, Barron S, Driscoll CD, Chen JS. Taste aversion learning in preweanling rats exposed to alcohol prenatally. Teratology 1984;29:325-331.
16 Barron S, Gagnon WA, Mattson SN, Kotch LE, Meyer LS, Riley EP. The effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on odor associative learning in rats. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 1988;10: 333-339.
17 Bond NW, DiGiusto EL. Avoidance conditioning and Hebb-Williams maze performance in rats treated prenatally with alcohol. Psychopharmacology 1978;58:69-71.
18 Driscoll CD, Chen JS, Riley EP. Operant DRL performance in rats following prenatal alcohol exposure. Neurobehavioral Toxicology 1980; 2: 207-211.
19 Gentry GD, Middaugh LD. Prenatal ethanol weakens the efficacy of reinforcers for adult mice. Teratology 1988;37:135-144.
20 Martin JC, Martin DC, Sigman G, Radow B. Offspring survival, development, and operant performance following maternal ethanol consumption. Developmental Psychobiology 1977;10:435-446.
21 Randall CL, Becker HC, Middaugh LD. Effect of prenatal ethanol exposure on activity and shuttle avoidance behavior in adult C57 mice. Alcohol & Drug Research 1986;6:351-360.
22 Riley EP, Lochry EA, Shapiro NR, Baldwin J. Response perseveration in rats exposed to alcohol prenatally. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior 1979;10:255-259.
23 Thomas JD, Weinert SP, Sharif S, Riley EP. MK-801 administration during ethanol withdrawal in neonatal rat pups attenuates ethanol-induced behavioral deficits. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 1997;21: 1218-1225.
24 Anandam N, Stern JM. Alcohol in utero: Effects of preweanling appetitive learning. Neurobehavioral Toxicology 1980;2:199-205.
25 Mihalick SM, Crandall JE, Langlois JC, Krienke JD, Dube WV. Prenatal ethanol exposure, generalized learning impairment, and medial prefrontal cortical deficits in rats. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 2001;23:453- 462.
26 Martin JC, Martin DC, Lund CA, Streissguth AP. Maternal alcohol ingestion and cigarette smoking and their effects on newborn conditioning. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 1977; 1:243-247.
27 Kodituwakku PW, May PA, Clericuzio CL, Weers D. Emotion-related learning in individuals prenatally exposed to alcohol: An investigation of the relation between set shifting, extinction of responses, and behavior. Neuropsychologia 2001;39:699-708.
28 Coles CD. Fetal alcohol exposure and attention: Moving beyond ADHD. Alcohol Research and Health 2001;25:199.
29 Bhatara V, Loudenberg R, Ellis R. Association of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and gestational alcohol exposure: An exploratory study. Journal of Attention Disorders 2006;9: 515-522.
30 Fryer SL, McGee CL, Matt GE, Riley EP, Mattson SN. Evaluation of psychopathological conditions in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Pediatrics 2007;119:e733-41.
31 DiMaio S, Grizenko N, Joober R. Dopamine genes and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A review. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 2003;28:27-38.
32 Holroyd CB, Baker TE, Kerns KA, Mueller U. Electrophysiological evidence of atypical motivation and reward processing in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Neuropsychologia 2008;46:2234-2242.
33 Chamberlain SR, Müller U, Blackwell AD, Clark L, Robbins TW, Sahakian BJ. Neurochemical modulation of response inhibition and probabilistic learning in humans. Science 2006; 311:861-863.
34 Kaufman AS, Kaufman NL. Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test - 2nd Edition. Circle Pines, MN: AGS Publishing, 2004.
35 Webster-Stratton C. The Incredible Years. Lancaster, UK: Gazelle Book Services, 2006.
36 Phelan TW. 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12. Glen Ellyn IL: ParentMagic, Incorporated, 2004.
37 Frank MJ, Seeberger LC, O'Reilly RC. By carrot or by stick: Cognitive reinforcement learning in parkinsonism. Science 2004;306:1940-1943.
38 Dennis M, Francis DJ, Cirino PT, Schachar R, Barnes MA, Fletcher JM. Why IQ is not a covariate in cognitive studies of neurodevelopmental disorders. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 2009; 15:331-343.
39 Conners CK. Forty years of methylphenidate treatment in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Attention Disorders 2002;6: S17-S30.
40 Pliszka SR. The neuropsychopharmacology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Biological Psychiatry 2006;57:1385-1390.
41 Taylor JR, Jentsch JD, Solanto MV, Arnsten AFT, Castellanos FX. Stimulant effects on striatal and cortical dopamine systems involved in reward-related behavior and impulsivity in Stimulant drugs and ADHD: Basic and clinical neuroscience. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001;104-133.
42 Gelenberg AG, Bassuk EL. The Practitioner's Guide to Psychoactive Drugs: 4th Edition. New York: Springer, 1997.
2 Mattson SN, Riley EP, Gramling L, Delis DC, Jones KL. Neuropsychological comparison of alcohol-exposed children with or without physical features of fetal alcohol syndrome. Neuropsychology 1998;12:146-153.
3 Mattson SN, Roebuck TM. Acquisition and retention of verbal and nonverbal information in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 2002;26:875-882.
4 Willford JA, Richardson GA, Leech SL, Day NL. Verbal and visuospatial learning and memory function in children with moderate prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 2004;28:497-507.
5 Pei J, Rinaldi C. A review of the evolution of diagnostic practices for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Developmental Disabilities Bulletin 2004;32:125-139.
6 Sutton RS, Barto AG. Reinforcement learning: An introduction. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998.
7 Cooper JD, Rudeen PK. Alterations in regional catecholamine content and turnover in the male rat brain in response to in utero ethanol exposure. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 1988;12:282-285.
8 Choong K-C, Shen R-Y. Prenatal ethanol exposure alters the postnatal development of the spontaneous electrical activity of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area. Neuroscience 2004;126: 1083-1091.
9 Shen R-Y, Hannigan JH, Kapatos G. Prenatal ethanol reduces the activity of adult midbrain dopamine neurons. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 1999;23:1801-1807.
10 Wang J, Haj-Dahmane S, Shen R-Y. Effects of prenatal ethanol exposure on the excitability of ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons in vitro. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 2006;319:857-863.
11 Cortese BM, Moore GJ, Bailey BA, Jacobson SW, Delaney-Black V, Hannigan JH. Magnetic resonance and spectroscopic imaging in prenatal alcohol-exposed children: Preliminary findings in the caudate nucleus. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 2006;28:597-606.
12 Archibald SL, Fennema-Notestine C, Gamst A, Riley EP, Mattson SN, Jernigan TL. Brain dysmorphology in individuals with severe prenatal alcohol exposure. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 2001;43:148-154.
13 Mattson SN, Riley EP, Sowell ER, Jernigan TL, Sobel DF, Jones KL. A decrease in the size of the basal ganglia in children with fetal alcohol syndrome. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 1996;20:1088-1093.
14 Riikonen RS, Nokelainen P, Valkonen K, Kolehmainen AI, Kumpulainen KI, Könönen M, Vanninen R-LS, Kuikka JT. Deep serotonergic and dopaminergic structures in fetal alcoholic syndrome: A study with nor-beta-CIT-singlephoton emission computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging volumetry. Biological Psychiatry 2005;57:1565-1572.
15 Riley EP, Barron S, Driscoll CD, Chen JS. Taste aversion learning in preweanling rats exposed to alcohol prenatally. Teratology 1984;29:325-331.
16 Barron S, Gagnon WA, Mattson SN, Kotch LE, Meyer LS, Riley EP. The effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on odor associative learning in rats. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 1988;10: 333-339.
17 Bond NW, DiGiusto EL. Avoidance conditioning and Hebb-Williams maze performance in rats treated prenatally with alcohol. Psychopharmacology 1978;58:69-71.
18 Driscoll CD, Chen JS, Riley EP. Operant DRL performance in rats following prenatal alcohol exposure. Neurobehavioral Toxicology 1980; 2: 207-211.
19 Gentry GD, Middaugh LD. Prenatal ethanol weakens the efficacy of reinforcers for adult mice. Teratology 1988;37:135-144.
20 Martin JC, Martin DC, Sigman G, Radow B. Offspring survival, development, and operant performance following maternal ethanol consumption. Developmental Psychobiology 1977;10:435-446.
21 Randall CL, Becker HC, Middaugh LD. Effect of prenatal ethanol exposure on activity and shuttle avoidance behavior in adult C57 mice. Alcohol & Drug Research 1986;6:351-360.
22 Riley EP, Lochry EA, Shapiro NR, Baldwin J. Response perseveration in rats exposed to alcohol prenatally. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior 1979;10:255-259.
23 Thomas JD, Weinert SP, Sharif S, Riley EP. MK-801 administration during ethanol withdrawal in neonatal rat pups attenuates ethanol-induced behavioral deficits. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 1997;21: 1218-1225.
24 Anandam N, Stern JM. Alcohol in utero: Effects of preweanling appetitive learning. Neurobehavioral Toxicology 1980;2:199-205.
25 Mihalick SM, Crandall JE, Langlois JC, Krienke JD, Dube WV. Prenatal ethanol exposure, generalized learning impairment, and medial prefrontal cortical deficits in rats. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 2001;23:453- 462.
26 Martin JC, Martin DC, Lund CA, Streissguth AP. Maternal alcohol ingestion and cigarette smoking and their effects on newborn conditioning. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 1977; 1:243-247.
27 Kodituwakku PW, May PA, Clericuzio CL, Weers D. Emotion-related learning in individuals prenatally exposed to alcohol: An investigation of the relation between set shifting, extinction of responses, and behavior. Neuropsychologia 2001;39:699-708.
28 Coles CD. Fetal alcohol exposure and attention: Moving beyond ADHD. Alcohol Research and Health 2001;25:199.
29 Bhatara V, Loudenberg R, Ellis R. Association of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and gestational alcohol exposure: An exploratory study. Journal of Attention Disorders 2006;9: 515-522.
30 Fryer SL, McGee CL, Matt GE, Riley EP, Mattson SN. Evaluation of psychopathological conditions in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Pediatrics 2007;119:e733-41.
31 DiMaio S, Grizenko N, Joober R. Dopamine genes and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A review. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 2003;28:27-38.
32 Holroyd CB, Baker TE, Kerns KA, Mueller U. Electrophysiological evidence of atypical motivation and reward processing in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Neuropsychologia 2008;46:2234-2242.
33 Chamberlain SR, Müller U, Blackwell AD, Clark L, Robbins TW, Sahakian BJ. Neurochemical modulation of response inhibition and probabilistic learning in humans. Science 2006; 311:861-863.
34 Kaufman AS, Kaufman NL. Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test - 2nd Edition. Circle Pines, MN: AGS Publishing, 2004.
35 Webster-Stratton C. The Incredible Years. Lancaster, UK: Gazelle Book Services, 2006.
36 Phelan TW. 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12. Glen Ellyn IL: ParentMagic, Incorporated, 2004.
37 Frank MJ, Seeberger LC, O'Reilly RC. By carrot or by stick: Cognitive reinforcement learning in parkinsonism. Science 2004;306:1940-1943.
38 Dennis M, Francis DJ, Cirino PT, Schachar R, Barnes MA, Fletcher JM. Why IQ is not a covariate in cognitive studies of neurodevelopmental disorders. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 2009; 15:331-343.
39 Conners CK. Forty years of methylphenidate treatment in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Attention Disorders 2002;6: S17-S30.
40 Pliszka SR. The neuropsychopharmacology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Biological Psychiatry 2006;57:1385-1390.
41 Taylor JR, Jentsch JD, Solanto MV, Arnsten AFT, Castellanos FX. Stimulant effects on striatal and cortical dopamine systems involved in reward-related behavior and impulsivity in Stimulant drugs and ADHD: Basic and clinical neuroscience. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001;104-133.
42 Gelenberg AG, Bassuk EL. The Practitioner's Guide to Psychoactive Drugs: 4th Edition. New York: Springer, 1997.